Project allows viewers to watch Santa fuel up his N.S. team

Santa Claus was feeding reindeer at the Shubenacadie Wildlife Park Thursday. He can be seen there every day at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m via the park’s Reindeer Cam. (RYAN TAPLIN / STAFF)

Santa’s helpers hardly raise an antler when the jolly old elf pushes through the enclosure gate.

The man in the bright red and white suit strides past a gift-laden sleigh and taps his bucket of pine branches with his open hand to gain the attention of the five reindeer resting on the frigid ground at the Shubenacadie Provincial Wildlife Park.

They rise to their feet, stretch and gingerly approach the white-bearded gent who carries a treat and some supper.

Every day at 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., Santa approaches the sparse herd under the careful eye of the live webcam provided by novascotiawebcams.

“Our reindeer don’t have names,” says Theresa Adams, the assistant education co-ordinator at the wildlife park and the spokeswoman for the webcam project.

But if you listen closely by the enclosure, you can hear Santa call to his old friend Rudy. Sporting a shaggy brown and white coat to keep warm, this Rudy doesn’t have a glowing nose. In truth, only the park employees and a couple of curious media types are red-nosed on this chilly –10-degree day.

The park might be about halfway between the North Pole and the equator, but there are no half-measures for Santa when it comes to his interaction with the reindeer and his adoring webcam public.

“He moves slowly and he waves at the camera so all the folks watching get a chance to see him out there, and because he takes the deer a treat, they often get up and come around,” Adams says. “They’re fairly curious. Typically, they are reserved but they are very observant and they watch. Santa is very important to them, so they come right up to him.”

Santa discards his bucket of treats and retreats to the enclosure entrance to retrieve a bucket of mixed grains for the reindeer.

When he finishes feeding and talking to his charges, Santa approaches a large mailbox in the enclosure, pulls out a letter and opens it. “Ho, Ho, Ho,” he roars while reading the letter.

Stepping out of the reindeer habitat, Santa says: “It’s chilly.”

His fondness for the reindeer is evident.

“They’re my buddies,” he says.

“They are reindeer in training, but they’ll probably hitch up on the big day.”

Adams points out that there are only five reindeer at the wildlife park because “Santa likes to spread the herd around.”

Ralf Pickart of novascotiawebcams is the man who spreads the joy of Santa and his herd around Nova Scotia and the world.

“We have some fun, the viewers have fun. That’s good,” says Pickart, who has been running the advertising-based webcam business for five years.

This is the second Christmas he has shared Santa interacting with his reindeer from the wildlife park.

“The page views last year were 80,000 for the entire time but I think we can easily top that,” says the German-born Pickart, who moved to Nova Scotia nine years ago. “So far, we’ve had in six days 45,000 page views.”

Forty per cent of the page views are from Nova Scotia and another 30 per cent come from Canadians outside the province, while 20 per cent are from the United States and 10 per cent from European countries like Germany and the United Kingdom.

Adams says people really enjoy the 24-hour video feed, but most tune in for the two daily feedings.

“We’re having fun,” she says. “One of the benefits of social media is that you get instant feedback. It’s a lot of fun to watch the comments on our Facebook page and on the novascotiawebcams site. They are enjoying it.

“One of our favourite (comments) recently that put a smile on everyone’s face was the mom of two little girls who watch and when Santa waves at the webcam, they think Santa is waving at them because they are used to seeing their granny wave over Skype. They are convinced that Santa is watching them through the webcam.”

The webcam was set up last Friday and will be closed down on Christmas Eve to “keep the mystery involved” with the special night, Adams says.

The park is only open on weekends in the off-season but Adams says the usual Saturday and Sunday hours of 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. will be extended for the next two weekends so customers can watch live when Santa feeds his herd.

Those who want to watch by webcam can click onto novascotiawebcams.com.